Dialogue too quiet, explosions too loud (1 Viewer)

[DImitri001]

All I can add is that Interstellar is notorious for having a very loud low-end mix. Apparently this was deliberately done ! I think most folks likely turn down their sub-woofers for Interstellar! Lol

 

[hunterjwizard]

That explains quite a bit. Yeah drove me absolutely nuts. I missed like half the plot constantly riding the remote - and this was back when I only had standard stereo audio!

 

[Marc_Sulinski]

I have an HT receiver and separate LCR (+surround) speakers and still sometimes have this problem. It depends on the source material. Even some newer stuff is hard. I watched V for Vendetta on Netflix the other day (not super new, but it was HD, so probably a recent port), and I had to crank the volume to hear the dialog. Same with Westworld. Other stuff is perfectly fine. I am talking being -20 vs. -12. At -12, the effects are loud. For reference, I have a Pioneer Elite VSX-LX503 receiver and Atlantic Technology 370 speakers (almost 20 years old now).

With a receiver you can always bump up the center channel, but then effects out of the center channel will be louder. Also, you will notice a drop in volume in the rare cases where dialog comes from the LR speakers.

I would consider a receiver with dialog manipulation processing. For example, the Yamahas have dialog lift and level adjustments (not clear if you need presence speakers to achieve the "lift"). There are probably others that have this feature as well.

 

[hunterjwizard]

So since posting this I did purchase and have installed a receiver and speakers and things are MUCH better but still hitting a few fine-tuning issues. I will have to see if my receiver has Dialogue Lift, that would be extremely useful.

 

[Kim1979]

I live in a small studio apartment in Hong Kong that dynamic range is always a trouble. Since I start watching Netflix on my Panasonic TV (40" entry 4k model) this year, I often have to give up watching a show at late night because of that. This happens especially in horror films that apply a lot of cheap jump scares.

The Auto Volume Control on my Panasonic TV has little improvement but not much. After searching the net and I finally purchase an entry level Yamaha soundbar, go to website and download the user manual, go through the manual and found out how to enable Dynamic Range Compression, just turn it on. In addition, always enable "Clear Voice" feature. Now problem solved. There's still loud explosion and soft dialogues but at least the dialogs are audiable.

By the way, I notice that Samsung TVs have a very good DRC setting build-in. I've tried that in a hotel that has a Samsung smart TV, the result is very good just like commercial FM radio station, the volume level is flat when watching Netflix. I can hear everything at very low volume setting.

I suggest you check out "Auto Volume", "Dynamic Range Compression", "Night mode" whatever it call on your sound system, just go through the user manual (not quick setup manual), you may need to download the user manual from manufacturer's website.